CASH continues to pour in to finance a replacement for Nuneaton's stolen war memorial statue.

Appeal organisers expect the figure to top £11,000 by the end of the week - thanks to the generosity of people in the town, old soldiers and businesses.

Borough mayor Julie Jackson will be accepting a cheque for £500 on Thursday from the town's Heart of England Cooperative Society.

The appeal stands at £10,287 - but the Co-op cheque and other donations should see the figure break the £11,000 barrier.

Jo Dyke, community and membership adviser at the Nuneaton based Co-op, said: "This donation is part of the society's Helping Hearts Awards scheme, which aims to provide financial support to local charities and worth causes within the Nuneaton and Hinckley area."

The 5ft statue, weighing 1.5 tonnes, was hacked from its plinth in Riversley Park, overlooking Coton Road, hours after the Remembrance service in November.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has been consulting the public about the style of the replacement - and most people say they want an exact replica of the original Boer War infantryman which had stood 'guard' in the town for 101 years.

The statue received a fanfare unveiling in Nuneaton in 1905 when about 30,000 people crammed the streets of the town.

Police believe the statue may have been cut up and sold to unscrupulous scrap metal dealers or shipped out to China.

The borough council will soon begin a formal tendering process to replace the statue - originally paid for by public subscription - and council leader Dennis Harvey said: "The response has been fantastic.

"The original infantryman stood for generations - now we want to do something on behalf of those generations yet to come."